Stranger in Ajit
by Kiaran Dryaalis
Summary: For a challenge at the adventchilren community at livejournal. Kadaj storms off on his own and runs into Vincent. They talk. I've been watching this movie too much.


_**Author's Note:** I wrote the vast majourity of this during Math class. Oddly enough, that's when my creativity levels peak. The teacher doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that I'm an ARTIST/AUTHOR and NOT a MATHEMATICIAN!  
**Warning: **Spoilers for Advent Children, if you haven't seen it. Also, slight OOCness. And I'm not an expert on the things that went on between Vincent and Lucretia, so if I get something wrong, please don't bitch me out.  
**Disclaimer: **If I owned them, would I be a poor college student with no job? Somehow, I doubt it.  
**Dedication:** This was written as a request from Soulfire003 when I posted a challenge at the adventchilren community at livejournal.  
_

Stranger at Ajit

Kadaj threw his sword down in a fit of rage. Pivoting on his heels, the silver-haired young man stormed away from the scene where he and his brothers had been fighting Cloud, only to have their blond "brother" whisked away by a red…thing. He didn't know what it was; he didn't _care_ what it was. It had interrupted his fight and he didn't like that.

Loz began to follow his youngest brother, but Yazoo's hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks.

"Leave him be," the long-haired brother said. "He'll be back."

Loz hesitated, then nodded. Stepping over to his brother's sword, he picked the weapon up and took it over to where Kadaj had left his motorbike. He leaned it against the bike, then went to prepare the fight for the night. Yazoo glanced to the brush where his brother disappeared and gave a sigh. His brother was always so hot-headed.

* * *

Kadaj felt branches hit his arms through the leather that encased his lithe body. It stung a bit, though his clothes absorbed the most of the impact as he stormed through the opalesque forest of Ajit. More than one small branch hit his cheeks, drawing fine red lines on his pale face. He didn't care.

Coming to a clearing by a creek, Kadaj began to slow down. He was still filled with anger, so he went over and slammed a balled fist into a nearby tree. Pieces of eerily glowing crystal back flew past him as his punch created an indent in the trunk. He removed his fist from the tree and stood back, cradling his fist in his other hand. The numb pain that shot through his hand distracted him momentarily from his anger.

It occurred to him then, all at once, that a cold sweat had broken out over most of his body, and he quickly reached up to unzip the top of his coat, unable to stand such discomforts. A slight shudder ran through his body, accompanying the sweat. He felt eyes on him; eyes that were unwelcome and quickly angering Kadaj once again. The silver-haired man whirled around, hand reaching for his sword, only to grasp thin air until he realized he had left it behind.

"Who's there!" he demanded, preparing to fight with his fist, if need be.

There was silence in reply. A small growl of irritation escaped Kadaj's lips.

"Show yourself!"

Still nothing responded to Kadaj's demands. At least, nothing from the direction that he was looking towards. While Kadaj's eyes sought a figure on the ground, crimson eyes watched him from the thick branches of a tree not ten feet from where the silver-haired man stood. These eyes, the colour of spilled blood, watched Kadaj's angry, yet wary movements with the slightest hint of amusement.

Kadaj gave up on trying to find the intruder and sat down by the water's edge. He looked at the creek's reflective surface, studying his own cat-slit eyes and silver hair. In those features, he recognised, not only the General Sephiroth, but also his mother, Jenova. Though, he couldn't call her his true mother; Jenova hadn't given birth to him, or any of his brothers. Instead, Kadaj was infected with her cells.

_Kaa-san, will we find you? _

The silent question was left unanswered. Kadaj and his brothers had been seeking their mother for a long time. So far, every lead they had gotten had led them to a dead end. Would this one with the Shinra heir lead him, Loz, and Yazoo down a path with the same ending? Or would they finally be reunited with the mother they so desperately sought?

Sometimes, Kadaj doubted their efforts would get them anywhere.

He sat at the water's edge for a few more minutes before getting up. Brushing the dirt from his pants, Kadaj turned to leave and head back to the other clearing, where his brothers were most likely waiting for him. However, a soft noise behind him made him whip around.

On the other side of the creek, there stood a man with long black hair and crimson eyes. Kadaj noted the man's attire; black pants and shirt, with a red cape that look similar to the thing that had taken Cloud from the fight scene. Kadaj's eyes narrowed as he looked at the other man, the small slit pupils constricting to almost invisible lines.

"Who are you?" Kadaj demanded.

"No one of interest," the other man replied, his arms crossed over his chest. His left arm was incased in a golden gauntlet.

"You were spying on me," Kadaj said flatly.

"Perhaps."

"Why?"

The black-haired man, Vincent Valentine, leaned against one of the white trees behind him. "I happened to be here before you arrived."

"What would you be doing here alone in these woods?" Kadaj asked.

"I could ask the same of you," the other man answered.

"I'm not alone," Kadaj spat. "My brothers are with me."

_I've noticed, _ Vincent thought to himself. He knew, of course, that Kadaj wasn't alone. He had seen all three of the silver-haired men. And, he had interrupted their fight with Cloud, in order to save the blond young man. Vincent could tell from Kadaj's body language, that if the spirit of Sephiroth knew that he had been the one to interrupt the fight, his anger would peak and he would likely attack.

Kadaj looked away from Vincent, towards the wood behind him; his path back to Loz and Yazoo. "Have you ever sought something you couldn't have?"

Vincent was taken aback by Kadaj's question, though he didn't show it. He looked at the younger man with his crimson eyes, studying his every feature. Kadaj's fists were balled, but he showed no anger. There was more resignation in those eyes that anything else. As if the spirit had given up. Sighing, Vincent though of when he was younger.

"I once lost someone," he said, wondering why he would tell Kadaj this. "She was special to me. However, she didn't care for me and married another. No matter how much I cared for her and sought her attention, she never gave it to me."

Thinking of Lucretia and how she had gone to Hojo used to be hard on him. Things had changed recently however. No longer did he hurt when he thought of what had happened, though he still held anger against Sephiroth and almost everything connected to the General. So, why then, did he speak to this man, a spirit who, in every aspect, resembled him?

Kadaj glanced at Vincent. "What happened to her?"

Vincent returned Kadaj's gaze, crimson eyes meeting aqua ones. "She died. A long while ago."

Kadaj broke eye-contact with the other man. His eyes shifted once again to the woods.

"And you?" Vincent asked. "What do you seek?"

He knew already, of course. And he prayed that Kadaj and his brothers would never attain their goal.

Kadaj stood silently for a moment. Then, in a soft voice, he answered: "I'm looking for my mother."

_As expected, _ Vincent thought.

"My brothers and I have looked for her for a long time," Kadaj continued. "Every time we think we might find her, we wind up at a dead end. We need her. All we want is to be normal. But until we find our mother, we can't have even that. Is there something wrong with us, what we're not even allowed to have normality? Can we not fight against what hurts us?"

Vincent looked at Kadaj. In a way, he understood what the other man was going through. After what had happened with Hojo, Vincent wasn't the same as he once had been. And he would never be what anybody would consider for a second to be normal. Like Kadaj and his brothers, a sense of normality would never be within reach.

Silence filled the next several minutes. Both Vincent and Kadaj were lost in their own thoughts. Vincent remained leaning against his tree and Kadaj stood against the forest's edge. After a short while, Kadaj shifted.

"I apologise for your loss," he said softly. He didn't feel sorry, but he felt it needed to be said. He turned his back on Vincent. "I should return to my brothers."

Vincent nodded. "Good luck finding your mother."

Kadaj's lips twitched, forming the slightest hint of a smile. He said nothing, though. Instead, he moved silently, walking through the woods. Vincent watched the silver-haired man until he could no longer see Kadaj. He stepped away from the tree he had been leaning against and turned to exit the woods of Ajit.

"To be normal," he muttered. "Isn't that what we all want? But one has to wonder…what is it, to be normal?"

Owari

_**Author's Note: **Hmm. I think that was a bit more OOC than I wanted. I have very little experience writing Vincent, so this is probably wildly out of character for him. I apologise if it is.  
_


End file.
